Ale to the 'Burbs is a monthly collaborative beer blog series. Five Chicagoland beer blogs…five communities…five suburban beer destinations…all on one day. From the hidden neighborhood gems to the well-known pillars of suburban craft beer, we've got the Chicago 'burbs covered. Links to the other four articles are listed at the top of this post. Check back next month for another set of articles.

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Monthly Archives: June 2013

Home brewer Time Hoerman decides to start brewing professionally. The brewery will be nestle in the south side of Westmont and will feature a small tap room for those who want to grab a beer with some great people. Make sure to check out all five submissions for Ale to the Burbs this month.

For Beer Dogging’s June contribution to Ale to the Burbs, we went with our friends at Urban Legend Brewing. We have been working with them on a variety of projects and have had a chance to see their work first hand. They will be opening next month and we are very excited for them. The address is 1115 Zygmunt Circle, Westmont, IL. Up until recently, those outside of the craft beer circle didn’t know much of Urban Legend Brewing. The Beer Dogging team has worked hard to help promote Urban Legend Brewing because we believe in their mission. When we first approached Ryan Terrell of Suburban Life Media, he had not heard of Urban Legend Brewing either. Recently they published a nice article about the brewery, and we are happy to say that there is a little buzz in the air.

Nelson Smokes Ginger at Standard Market

Our Projects with Urban Legend

With the popularity of events like the Chicago Beer Society’s “Day of the Living Ales”, it was an easy decision to decide that our next project would focus on cask beers. For those that are unfamiliar with cask beers, they are unpasteurized and are not carbonated in the traditional manner by adding carbon dioxide or nitrogen. It’s a style that not too many people know much about. This is very interesting since this is not a new technique for dispensing beer. It actually has it’s roots embedded deep in history. The Beer Dogging crew knew we wanted to make a video around the subject that would cover the fans thoughts and other beer industry experts opinions. However, we also knew that we wanted to brew a beer in a cask. This was something that we have not done much and we wanted to learn a little bit more about it. We knew we wanted to involve a local brewer, but how would we decide?

One day we were sitting at Standard Market in Westmont having a few drinks and we happen to meet a guy who was in the middle of trying to open a brewery in Westmont. Now since most of the Beer Dogging crew is from Westmont, we already knew quite a bit about the plans for the brewery, but we had yet to meet the guy behind it. This was how we met Tim Hoerman of Urban Legend Brewing Company. He invited us back to his house to try his beers and we discussed our favorite topic…beer. It didn’t take long for us to decide that we wanted to involve him in our project. The collaboration beer we made was called “Nelson Smokes Ginger”. This beer used smoked and pilsner malts, Nelson hops, and finally made it’s home in a cask with some fresh ginger. The beer was received well at the release party at Standard Market and we are well on our way to the completion of another successful project. If you have not seen the trailer for our upcoming cask beer video, here it is.

Why Westmont?

For those that don’t know, Westmont has a very big tradition when it comes to alcohol. Back during prohibition, many people came to Westmont to get their hands on their favorite illegal beverage. If you happen to ride the train through Westmont, you still may hear a few shout outs like “Next Stop Whiskey Hill” or “Wetmont”. Many “Westmontians” are still a bit sensitive about this, but it has never bothered us. Westmont has actually come a long way since then. The town is a very friendly middle class town where people still say hello. It is ideal for a brewery like Urban Legend. As a resident, Tim understands the town and even has a beer called “God Country” that is shout out to it’s most famous resident, Muddy Waters. Muddy Waters actually referred to Westmont as God’s country. It’s the little things like this that are going to help make Urban Legend successful. Tim also says that the water in Westmont is ideal for brewing his beers which I am not going to disagree with.

Quality of Beer

Now Tim Hoerman has won many medals for his brewing efforts. If you take a look at the Urban Legend website, you will see at least a half a dozen medals or so. We have also tasted the beers and brewed with him multiple times. The guy knows his stuff. However, the most impressive thing I have heard is from his peers at other breweries. I have heard at least a dozen times how good Tim is at extracting just the right malt flavor and how great he is at lagering.

Why is Urban Legend Unique?

They are going to make it. Yes they make good beer, but that might not be enough. At a recent small business event, the Beer Dogging crew had a chance to meet with Jim Koch of Sam Adams and many members of his staff. There were a few breweries there and it was nice to see a dominant force of the beer industry trying to help out new brewers. One thing I kept hearing was why are you different? One Vice President for Sam Adams actually pull out a bottle of Boston Lager and place it front of a new brewer and said how are you going to beat this. All they could muster up is that they make good beer. Well we all know how that conversation went and no I’m not going to tell which brewery it was.

Urban Legend is going to be different. They have a vision. They are going to have a little tasting room onsite and customers will be able to purchase 1/6 barrels out of the Westmont location. How will you know what beer is being served? Urban Legend will actually have flags flying that will indicate what beers will be available. There will be a white flag for pilsner, a red for amber, and so on and so forth. The flags will be visible from 63rd Street, so you won’t even have to turn into the industrial area to see whats on tap. This brewery’s best asset is their people skills. Sit down with Tim and the other guys from Urban Legend and you will see right away why they are going to make it. People of craft beer just don’t want to drink. They want to drink with others who are passionate about beer. They want to be able to walk into a brewery and speak with the brewers and feel like they are a part of something. Urban Legend will bring that to the community. We wish them good luck and hopefully you will all get to sample more of our collaborations we do with them.